1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to telecommunications, and in particular, to service layer availability for communication services.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Modern communication providers often times offer a wide variety of communications services to customers. For example, customers frequently purchase, subscribe to, or otherwise obtain voice calling, ring tone, text messaging, or Internet access services from communication providers.
Typically, provisioning and providing communication services involves a multitude of service layers. For instance, many communication services require a customer access layer for providing a user via a device with access. A network access layer is frequently required for bridging the customer access layer to a service layer. The service layer commonly provides the communication service itself. In support of the communication service, a service bureau layer or business applications layers could be included.
Many different physical systems or elements are used to provide the above mentioned service layers. In the design of communication services, the various service layers can be defined and categorized as desired. For example, customer access layer elements could include cable modems, wireless base stations, and communication devices. Examples of network access layer elements could include media gateways, session border controllers, and next generation gateways. Examples of service layer elements could include email servers, text messaging servers, and ring tone servers. Examples of service bureau layer elements could include credit check systems. Examples of business application layer elements could include billing systems and call record systems. It should be understood that single element could be defined as included in one or more service layers.
In the prior art, performance monitoring systems are well know. As part of most performance monitoring systems, the physical elements involved in a particular service monitor their own performance and transmit performance information to a central repository or system for analysis by professionals. For instance, many network elements transmit status and performance information to network operations centers. Such performance information usually indicates bandwidth utilization, processor capacity, and the like.
At the central repository or network operation center, the performance information is usually displayed via a graphical user interface in a manner so as to inform a user of the status of a particular network element. The performance information is frequently processed to generate an availability metric that is then displayed to the user.
In a metro-area example, a graphical user interface could display all of the elements involved with a particular service, such as wireless voice calls. The actual elements, such as the base stations, mobile switching center, and base station controllers, required to provide the service generate and transmit performance information to the central repository. The performance information is then processed on a per-element basis to determine an availability metric for each element. In an example, an element is described as 99.999% available (five-nine availability). A user could then click on or otherwise read the availability of the various network elements to determine their availability.
Unfortunately, performance monitoring systems in the prior art only account for and display performance information on a per-network element basis. As a result, a great amount of time and effort is required by technicians and other such professionals to determine the availability of an entire service layer, rather than the individual elements of the service layer. It would be preferred if such professionals could be freed from having to infer or predict the availability of a service layer and thereby avoid costly and time consuming errors.